Today (October 23, 2017) I was privileged to give an invited guest lecture to graduate students in Julio Bermudez’s Sacred Space Theory Seminar at The Catholic University of America’s School of Architecture and Planning.

The presentation was titled “The Transformative Power of Sacred Architecture: Exploring Ritual-Architectural Priorities and Evidence-Based Design for Sacred Spaces.” In the lecture, I introduced students to the possibilities of how sacred architecture has the ability to produce transformative human experiences. We analyzed ritual-architectural priorities for several case studies, such as Chartres Cathedral, to identify design strategies that could be used in the evidence-based design process for sacred spaces across religious traditions.